Walking into my apartment late, sweaty and tired from Jujitsu, I almost missed this week’s episode. Boy was I glad I didn’t! In addition to another great fight, this week we’re treated to some trademark reality show drama. That’s right, D-R-A-M-A, drama. For the past two weeks the only real drama we’ve seen has been inside the cage, which I’m sure is how some of the more old school viewers wish it would stay. Regardless, it’s not just the old-school fans who buy the tickets anymore, so the drama is coming in bunches for the newer mainstream fans.

Right away we’ve got a big dose of the D-word shoved in our faces. Not that D-word perverts. The word is drama. Shonie Carter is starting to get on everyone’s nerves. He keeps spray painting things, or “blinging” them up, as he puts it. Whatever you call it, the other fighters in the house are finding his antics rather bothersome. Shonie pays no mind, and like a true pimp just keeps on rollin’ like a hubcap in the fast lane. All that emotion must have inspired something in Team No Love, because they’re back in the gym training their asses off. Team No Love is getting worried as their losses start mounting. The mind games are starting to flow, as Jackson, Spratt, and Burnett all think they’re going to be fighting next. At least now they’re back in the gym training extremely hard.

More drama is going down at the house, with Din Thomas getting on Jeremy Jackson’s nerves. Apparently Jackson doesn’t trust Din, and he jokingly remarks that if they fought he would knock Thomas out with a left hook. Despite this, Jackson truly wants to fight Lytle. Din wants to fight Jeremy, and Lytle just wants to fight. What a bizarre triangle of fighter love we’re witnessing. Even through all the tension, they still manage to joke about the fights like consummate professionals. Ah the marvels of modern television editing.

The gang gets to watch UFC 60 on the house TV, and Georges St. Pierre shows up (like many of my friends) to mooch off the Pay-Per-View. Matt Hughes comes on screen and gets unanimously boo’d by almost everyone in the house. So much for that professionalism I mentioned earlier. After the fights Matt Serra seems a little bummed about Royce’s loss, and speaks his mind about Matt Hughes. Even though Matt is so dominant, Serra feels that he can be beat just like any other human being. There’s another famous grappler in the house that doesn’t share quite the same view point on the Gracie fight, and you know what that means. That’s right kids, it’s the word of the week: drama.

Marc Laimon is brought back into the picture to train the guys, and egos clash after the first Team Mojo session. Serra doesn’t like Laimon’s disrespectful tone in regards to how badly Royce got “dominated.” Matt Serra and Laimon have also cornered fighters opposite each other before (Phil Baroni vs. Pete Sell), and apparently Laimon was complaining after the match of some unfair refereeing. Clearly there’s a lot of tension, and this week they really should have gotten Emeril Lagasse to pop up and say “bam” every time the tension was kicked up another notch.

Back at the house, Clementi and the rest of Team No Love play a little joke on Shonie, and he doesn’t take it very well. He remarks that he’d move up in weight to fight the culprit, if the prankster is in fact a middleweight. This is just another case of the jokester not being able to take a little of his own medicine. Next, the producers decide to show Jeremy Jackson pushing himself to the limit in the gym, which gets me thinking that he will be the one fighting this week. Cut to the second Welterweight prelim announcement. The Grey team announces that Pete Spratt will fight Chris Lytle, and Jackson seems a little surprised by the announcement. Obviously I was also surprised, so score one for the TUF producers.

The obligatory training montage and background checks follow. The purpose of these pieces is two-fold, as the nostalgic trip down memory lane is simultaneously awesome for old-school fans and educational for the newer TUF fans. Both Spratt and Lytle have a wealth of Octagon experience, so look for this to be an exciting bout. We lucky viewers were also treated to a little sneak preview of Crank, and boy does it look awesome in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way. Jason Statham is consistently a really nice guy, and also an extremely knowledgeable mixed martial arts fan, so I suggest that you all go see Crank to support the people that support the sport that we love. Who knows, it may also be a decent flick.

Once again, a major clue into the outcome of this weeks fight is the time. At 10:50 pm PST, with ten minutes left in the show, they’re still doing the whole pre-fight hype sequence. Looks like we’re in for a short fight tonight and the war that Spratt predicts may be more of the Persian Gulf variety. The fight finally begins, and right away Lytle charges in with a hard left middle kick. After tying up on the fence, Lytle works some foot stomps. Lytle gets a slick trip takedown, and quickly moves to half guard. Spratt attempts a sweep, but things get worse for the kickboxer after being mounted. Lytle keeps a tight mount, and soon Lytle gets a tight one handed guillotine from the top, prompting Spratt to quickly tap. Lytle wins by submission at 2:53 of round 1, and advances to the semi-finals.

Spratt freaks out back in the locker room, and confesses that this is probably the toughest loss of his career. He never really got a chance to get into his groove or get his game going, and unfortunately for Spratt there may not be another chance to do so in the UFC. Although after watching next week’s preview, Pete may have a third chance coming, as apparently one of the other fighters goes “AWOL.” That and the arrival of a debilitating skin disease are getting me really stoked for next week, with the fourth episode of…….THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER.